Yes, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye was 88 years old, and yes, he was in the hospital twice in the last month. But his death Monday still came as a great surprise to many, and it’s still very hard to believe he’s gone. After 50 years in the Senate, it was easy to feel like he’d be around forever.

Walking into the U.S. Capitol tonight and seeing a flag-draped coffin brought the reality home.

I covered Sen. Inouye occasionally for the last few years, starting when I was living on Kauai, working for The Garden Island newspaper. We crossed paths on Oahu when I was there with Civil Beat, and then again here in the nation’s capital when I took over the Washington bureau. We probably spoke in person a dozen times in all, and I’d be lying if I said our relationship ever advanced past the public figure-reporter stage.

Still, I found myself surprisingly saddened by his passing, and surprisingly emotional and contemplative as I paid my respects while he laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda, an honor bestowed on only 31 other men and women in the nation’s history. After all, we weren’t friends.

Part of it is the respect everyone who knows his story feels. While other Japanese-Americans were being interned, he was pushing to fight for his country. He exhibited extraordinary heroism fighting some of the worst enemies freedom has ever known, then returned home and faced discrimination. He persevered despite physical challenges and bigotry to become a tremendously powerful figure, and used that power to advocate for his people.

For many who stood beside me at the Capitol tonight, that’s the entire story. Tourists and veterans and congressional staffers were there to honor the service.

But there was another part of it, at least for me.

Inouye’s impact on Hawaii has been profound. The islands I fell in love with are the way they are, for better and for worse, because of the power he’s wielded here for half a century. Even if you disagree with his politics, it’s impossible to appreciate life in Hawaii without appreciating how Inouye shaped that life.

So after I paid my respects, signed the condolence book and took one last look at a photo of the senator standing at the Capitol, flashing a shaka and a smile, I was greeted by a cold December rain that made me miss Hawaii all the more. Dan Inouye is gone, and the home we shared will never be the same.

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Part 1: Akaka Retiring: Plenty Aloha, But What About Accomplishments?

Part 2: Akaka Retiring: Hawaii Senator Leaving Office With Legacy Bill In Limbo

Congress has become increasingly polarized in recent years with Republicans and Democrats seemingly unable to set aside ideological loyalties and compromise.

But the last politician to blame would be Sen. Daniel Akaka, whose abiding legacy will surely be his patient efforts to bridge that widening political gulf.

Sen. Jim Inhofe is an Oklahoma Republican and the political opposite of Akaka, but still considers him a close friend.

“He’s always ranked among the most liberal and I’m always ranked among the most conservative, and yet we’re truly brothers,” Inhofe told Civil Beat. “In terms of what we stand for and our philosophy, we couldn’t be further apart. But in terms of our relationship, nobody could be closer than Danny Akaka and I.”

Inhofe chalks up the relationship to their shared faith, and said Akaka would routinely take requests for psalms and hymns at the weekly prayer breakfast senators share. One memorable example was ““, which Inhofe said was a tribute to how each senator is different and has something unique to offer the country.

Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who worked with Akaka in both the House and Senate and is now the second-ranking Democrat in the chamber, said Akaka is one of the most beloved members of the Senate, and a relic of a time when cross-aisle collaboration was more common.

“It is a bygone era, but Danny Akaka makes it work,” Durbin said. “People respect him for it.”

Akaka has built those relationships one at a time.

A recent example is Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who was swept into office in the Tea Party wave of 2010. Akaka said he took the now-unusual step of calling him in advance of a committee meeting to give him a heads up on what would be taking place.

“I go beyond the ordinary by being certain that I communicate with them. So even with Johnson, I would call him up and tell him I’m going to do this, this and this, rather than him coming and finding out, oh, we’re going to do these things,” Akaka said. “But just to inform him so he knows what’s going to happen, and I think that impacts your relationship with a person.

“That kind of relationship is different. Individually, our relationships are good. That’s what I mean. Trying to bring this kind of collegiality back. I really believe that we’re all different and we’re serving different people so we can’t think the same. We shouldn’t be thinking the same. But that doesn’t mean we cannot get along.”

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a colleague of Akaka’s for 10 years, has known him since her father, Frank Murkowski, served in the Senate. She says the tenor of Congress has changed over the years, making it harder for a senator like Akaka, who works to build relationships, to operate in the more politically polarized environment.

“When Sen. Akaka first came to the Senate, when he and my dad were working together, I think that kind of a style, ‘Hey this is an issue that is important to the people of Hawaii, you understand it because Alaska Natives have many of the same concerns,’ and you didn’t need to do more of a sell than that,” she said when Civil Beat asked her about why the Akaka Bill has not passed.

“I think the environment has probably changed. You have lawmakers who are coming over from the House and it’s just kind of, (snapping fingers) ‘We’re just counting votes here.’ And the relationship perhaps was not as significant, and so it really is a, you’d better walk them down through the point and the counterpoint of every aspect of the bill. So maybe that would have made a difference, but I think part of our reality is that things have changed around here.”

Akaka also has fond memories of the way things used to work.

“From the very beginning here, I tried to be an example of aloha to try to bring about better relationships as friends as well as working colleagues, and I’ve done that all the years I’ve been here,” he said. “When I first came here, I would say that feeling of aloha went pretty well. At that time, let me put it this way, we can move things by a handshake. And they would follow up with it. When you shook hands on things, it’s done.”

Over the years, Akaka said, the Senate changed as “old-timers” who stabilized the body were replaced by new members who came in with fixed minds and intended to change the system.

“And the sad thing about that is they’re trying to change it without respect, which was high in priority in my earlier days. Respect was important,” he said. “But I would say that Congress today has less feeling of respect than it had in my earlier days, and it affects everything else.”

So if there’s less aloha in Congress than ever, has the aloha senator failed in his primary mission?

“As I’m leaving,” Akaka said, smiling as always, “I think I have made some inroads.”

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Part 1: Akaka Retiring: Plenty Aloha, But What About Accomplishments?

Part 3: Akaka Retiring: Ambassador of Aloha Bridged Party Lines

Sen. Daniel Akaka, who is three-fourths Native Hawaiian and one-fourth Chinese, introduced the first incarnation of his namesake legislation more than a decade ago. Unless something dramatic happens in coming weeks, he’ll leave Congress without passing it — or even getting a straight up-or-down vote on it.

“My problem,” Akaka says, “it sounds kind of weird, but the reason I cannot pass it in the Senate is I have never been able to get it on the floor. And I really believe that if I got it on the floor, I could pass it. I can’t even get it to the floor!”

Akaka says the bill is an attempt to promote self-determination for Native Hawaiians and allow for government-to-government relationships between the U.S. and a Native Hawaiian entity. He also says it’s a matter of equity, since Native Americans and Alaska Natives have been federally recognized, but not Native Hawaiians.

Opponents have criticized the legislation as racially driven, and Akaka responds that it’s not a matter of race but of indigenous peoples who existed in a place and governed themselves before U.S. intervention.

Akaka proposed the first version of what eventually became the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act back in 2000. This is part of when he introduced the bill:

This measure provides the process to begin resolving many longstanding issues facing Hawaii’s indigenous peoples and the State of Hawaii. In addressing these issues, we have begun a process of healing, a process of reconciliation not only with the United States but within the State of Hawaii. The essence of Hawaii is characterized not by the beauty of its islands, but by the beauty of its people. The State of Hawaii has recognized, acknowledged and acted upon the need to preserve the culture, tradition, language and heritage of Hawaii’s indigenous peoples. This measure furthers these actions.

Mr. President, the clarification of the political relationship between Native Hawaiians and the United States is one that has been long in coming and is well-deserved. The history and the timing of Hawaii’s admission to the United States, unfortunately, did not provide the appropriate structure for a government-to-government relationship between Hawaii’s indigenous native peoples and the United States. The time has come to correct this injustice.

He’s proposed at least one version of the legislation in every Congress since. Here’s what’s happened to every incarnation, including those introduced by Hawaii’s representatives in the House:

• — Passed the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, never heard on the Senate floor
• — Passed the House of Representatives by voice vote, never heard on the Senate floor
• — Died in committee
• — Passed the House Resources Committee, never heard on the House floor
• — Passed the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, never heard on the Senate floor
• — Died in committee
• — Passed the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, never heard on the Senate floor
• — Died in committee
• — Passed the House Resources Committee, never heard on the House floor
• — Passed the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and was debated on the Senate floor on and , 2006. Inouye and Akaka were joined by Alaska Republican Ted Stevens and Illinois Democrat Barack Obama in speaking in support of the measure. Numerous Republicans objected. On June 8, a motion to end debate failed when it , short of the 60 required. No up-or-down vote on the merits of the bill was held.
• — Died in committee
• —ÂÓª²Ô³Ù°ù´Ç»å³Ü³¦±ð»å
• — Passed the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, never heard on the Senate floor
• — Passed the House of Representatives, , then died in Senate
• — Died in committee
• — Died in committee
• — Introduced
• — Died in committee
• — Passed the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, never heard on the Senate floor
• — Passed the House of Representatives, , then died in Senate
• —ÂÓª²Ô³Ù°ù´Ç»å³Ü³¦±ð»å
• — Passed the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in September 2012, awaiting Senate action for the rest of the 112th Congress
• — Pending in committee

It’s a long record of disappointment, but Akaka has not been totally unsuccessful on Native Hawaiian issues. In fact, 1993’s Apology Resolution is one of his signature accomplishments. Adopted a century after the 1893 overthrow, the measure signed by President Bill Clinton accepted U.S. responsibility for the removal of the “highly organized, self-sufficient, subsistent social system” that exited before Western contact.

Still, if Akaka spent his career in Washington building relationships and effectively operating behind the scenes, why was he unable to get even an up-or-down vote on his bill?

“We’re all of different minds, and I respect that. For whatever reason, somebody objects and of course in some cases you never know really why, except they object. It could be many reasons,” Akaka said. “I think that part of it is racial, because that has been used at one time to say that I’m being racial. And I try to of course educate them by saying, look, this is not race, this is indigenous, like the American Indians, like the Alaska Natives. These are people who were there first and they had their own governments earlier. Hawaii had a kingdom, and after they lost their kingdom, what happened to the indigenous people?”

Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who worked with Akaka in both the House and Senate and is now the second-ranking Democrat in the chamber, told Civil Beat that serving in the Senate requires patience.

“The day will come, and when it does, Danny Akaka will get great credit for it,” Durbin said of the Akaka bill.

Don Ritchie, the Senate historian, agreed that things happen slowly in Washington, and said there’s still a chance Congress will pass some version of the Akaka Bill after its namesake is gone from the halls of the Capitol.

“Your personal reputation often creates a certain amount of good will for the issues you support. And senators will come around and support that,” he said.

“I would say right now is an awkward time for anybody, because the House and Senate are just in total gridlock. Apple pie couldn’t be adopted right now in this Congress. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s done or dead,” Ritchie said. “It’s a real collapse of the system of collegiality that the Senate has always run on.”

Coming Wednesday: What does it mean to be the Ambassador of Aloha?

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Hawaii Gas CEO Jeff Kissel traveled to Washington, D.C., to bolster political support for his company’s proposal to import liquefied natural gas to the the state in coming years. He spoke to energy insiders at a luncheon on Thursday.

“If we can build customer loyalty, build community support and hopefully build some industry and legislative support, which is the thing that we’re doing here in Washington, D.C., we can cost justify the infrastructure necessary in our state to gradually on a low-risk basis build out this project and take Hawaii’s energy costs down by about $2 billion a year,” Kissel told a few dozen people at the ‘s monthly lunch at the University Club a few blocks north of the White House.

Kissel outlined what he said was a three-phase approach.

The first phase is shipping in LNG on Matson or Horizon ships as an emergency backup fuel.

“That’ll help us because the refineries and the rest of the infrastructure is weak in Hawaii,” Kissel told Civil Beat after his speech. “You need to have redundant capabilities.”

The second phase is using LNG to displace synthetic natural gas. Kissel said the hope is that the first two phases can be done within three years, and they will benefit Hawaii Gas’ 70,000 customers.

The third phase is “industrial, commercial power” available to the entire population, according to Kissel.

“We’re not actively trying to solicit HECO’s customers away from them,” he told Civil Beat. “We want HECO as one of our customers for our gas for their power generation.”

Kissel said LNG could provide about 400 megawatts of HECO’s load, with the rest being made up by renewables. LNG could also be used for transportation and marine purposes.

He told the luncheon crowd that the plan is to collaborate with a shipping company to dedicate a boat solely to regular transport between the West Coast and Hawaii.

Conservation groups are opposed to a switch to LNG because it perpetuates the state’s reliance on fossil fuel and could encourage more natural gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process that is raising environmental concerns.

Still, natural gas could play a key role, Kissel said, adding:

• LNG gives Hawaii energy diversity so that its not so singularly reliant on imported oil. Even the synthetic natural gas the company’s producing now requires petroleum.
• The stability offered by burning gas for electricity balances out more variable technologies like wind and solar.
• The money saved by using gas rather than imported oil means there’s more money to be invested in renewable energy technologies without driving up electricity prices even further.

Kissel closed his 20-minute speech by explaining the strategic value Hawaii provides.

“We were the only state to take a direct attack in World War II. We stand poised, in conjunction with what the Obama administration has announced in terms of its Asian strategy, to look to Asia again as a possible threat, whether it’s economic or physical. We need to have energy security in order to do that. It is in the national interest to develop this resource. It is in the national interest to make it a robust development, and that’s one reason that we as a company support the efforts to develop the export capability that we think is essential in order to cost justify the development of this resource.”

Check out the slides that Kissel distributed to luncheon attendees Thursday:

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That’s according to a new analysis by President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. The state-by-state breakdown of the impacts of the Bush-era tax cuts was released by the White House late Wednesday as part of Obama’s effort to convince Congress to extend the cuts for middle class Americans while allowing them to expire for top earners.

The full report is titled “.”

Here are some of the other Hawaii-specific findings:

• A median-income Hawaii family of four (earning $83,000) could see its income taxes rise by $2,200.
• 98 percent of Hawaii families make less than $250,000 a year and would not see an income tax increase under Obama’s plan.
• The tax increase and decline in consumption could slow the growth of real GDP by 1.4 percentage points in Hawaii.

The tax cuts, first passed under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 and since extended, are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress does not act. That’s part of the so-called “fiscal cliff” — the other part being automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester — dominating discussion in Washington, D.C.

UPDATE: Carl Bonham, professor of economics and executive director of the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO), said the White House’s estimates made sense to him.

“If we go down this road and don’t solve tax problem and sequestration, Hawaii is going to go into a recession just like rest of the county,” he said. “The tax increases are big part of that, but the sequestration is really a problem for Hawaii as well with the cuts in federal spending.”

“It’s already a drag on the economy,” Bonham said. “It’s already contributing to the U.S. economy and therefore to some extent Hawaii’s economy growing more slowly than we would have otherwise.”

He added: “The uncertainty this creates is just going to get worse.”

Bonham said UHERO’s expectation is that Congress will resolve the fiscal issues because “it’s the only rational thing to do…but it’s still Washington.”

Congress is negotiating during the lame-duck session to find a compromise on both components of the fiscal cliff. Obama has signaled he will only accept a deal if it includes a tax increase for the wealthiest Americans, and Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, are seeking reforms of entitlement programs like social security.

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The administration of Gov. Neil Abercrombie has signaled that the biennial budget it submits to the Hawaii Legislature in December will assume Congress finds a way to fix the sequestration cuts set to take effect at the end of the year.

If left unaddressed, the state believes, the cuts would erase a total of $35 million to $40 million of federal support from more than 100 Hawaii government programs.

“Each of the departments in the state that receive federal funds, they’ve been talking with the federal agencies, but there’s been very little insight because the federal agencies don’t even have insight on where they would start these cuts,” state Budget Director Kalbert Young told Civil Beat last week.

The sequester is one component of the so-called “fiscal cliff” now facing the country. (The other major piece is the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts.) Congress and President Barack Obama agreed in August 2011 to impose automatic across-the-board cuts to federal programs if negotiators were unable to shave more than $1 trillion in spending by January 2013.

When it was created, the sequester was intended to serve as motivation for a larger deal and was seen nearly universally as bad fiscal policy. But as the deadline approaches, some are now saying allowing the country to go off the cliff would be preferable to some lopsided forms of a deficit deal. For example, that Democrats are reluctant to cave on tax cuts for the wealthy.

If Congress is unable to strike a deal before the end of the year, the federal government would cut $65 billion from federal programs for the last nine months of the 2013 fiscal year, from January through September. Half would come from defense programs, and half from social programs.

Young, working with the federal government, has determined which state programs would lose funding under sequestration.

The 119 programs on the chopping block are facing cuts on the scale of around 8 percent. The largest cuts in terms of total value are from education:

• $3.8 million the feds give the state to help cover the of military families stationed in Hawaii
• $3.7 million to schools with many
• $3.3 million for for educating students with disabilities

Other state programs with a lot riding on sequestration include:

• $2.7 million for the WIC Supplemental Feeding Program administered by the Department of Health
• $2.1 million for the Head Start Program administered by the Department of Human Services
• $1.6 million for the Public Housing Operating Fund administered by the Department of Human Services
• $1.5 million for the Unemployment Insurance Program administered by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations

But while Young’s figured out which programs could lose federal funding and how much they could lose, it doesn’t answer the all-important follow-up.

“So the question is, if I had to make up $40 million of lost federal funds, as the finance director, how would I do that?” Young said.

The state could fill in the gap and operate the program on a full budget or it could operate the program on a marginally smaller budget. If neither of those options is palatable, a program could be axed entirely.

“Without speaking specifically to which exact programs, states will do a little bit of both,” Young said. “The answer would be that if you lost a significant portion of funding, at some point you would have to not do the program.

“The cuts will not be uniform. The different grants and different programs may be cut in differing amounts,” he said. “The scenario assumes that whatever cuts occur, that is pretty clean, and the question is only does the state want to replace those federal funds with state funds. I don’t know where or how some of these will be worked out.”

He said the administration is contemplating the value of every program and trying to project what each one would look at if the state lost all or part of the federal funding.

“I think there’s always programs that can be trimmed and reduced, but ultimately it becomes a policy decision, whether it’s at the federal level or state level or at the municipal level,” he said. “Which programs should be funded to serve which group of constituencies?

“What would that program look like? … How badly do we want these programs?” he said. “These are questions that are actively being discussed, 120 times.”

Meantime, Young has to submit his budget to the Legislature by Dec. 17. There’s no guarantee Congress will have addressed sequestration by that date.

“If I had to go in on a budget today, it assumes that sequestration is fixed. And if it’s not fixed, or if there’s some impact to it, the executive branch will have some opportunity to communicate revisions to the budget,” Young said.

Budget revisions during the legislative session are not uncommon, and Young said he’s already been in touch with key lawmakers about the approach the administration is taking.

“They will not be surprised, but they are also aware that if we get some federal cuts, there will be some revisions. We’ll have to work together on how those reductions are actually cleared into the budget,” he said. “Sequestration is just another aspect that we have to keep aware of.”

The Hawaii Board of Education took a similar approach last month when it sent its budget to the governor.

The Department of Education accounts for receiving $20 million less in stimulus money, but anticipates $2 million more in federal funds due to labor savings, budget documents show. The documents don’t reflect any potential sequestration cuts. Nor was there any discussion of that scenario in the department’s budget presentation to the board. So the DOE’s projected budget for Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015 is actually a bit higher than Fiscal Year 2013 in terms of federal funds.

The state government would not be the only Hawaii entity hit by sequestration. Island nonprofits would see a reduction in funding, and county governments could be asked to pick up some slack as well.

“The one thing that people should know is that federal sequestration does have an impact down to the individual because you’re talking about reducing funds to the states,” Young said. “That’s really what’s happening across the country. It flows from the top down. As the federal government reduces its spending, states are being asked to step in and fill the gap. And similarly when states can’t fill the gap, municipalities are being asked to fill in the gap. So all of these expenditures flow downhill.”

While the social programs side of the ledger is Young’s main focus, simliar cuts are set to take effect for defense programs as well.

Hawaii, by virtue of the heavy military presence, could see a hit to the economy from defense industry cuts. The Pew Center On the States, exploring , said federal defense spending accounts for 15 percent of Hawaii’s gross domestic product. That’s the highest mark in the country and far above the national average of 3.5 percent.

Asked specifically about the impact of the cuts on the operations at Kaneohe’s Marine Corps Base Hawaii and other Hawaii military installations, MCBH Media Officer Lt. Diann Olson said in an emailed statement that the base has not yet done a full assessment.

“Sequestration is alarming due to both the magnitude and the mechanism, because the law calls for across-the-board cuts. We have not yet fully assessed the impact of how sequestration may affect specific Marine Corps programs or departments,” Olson wrote. “The Office of Management and Budget and the DOD are working closely to understand the law and assess its impacts.”

— Nathan Eagle contributed to this report.

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Part 2: Akaka Retiring: Hawaii Senator Leaving Office With Legacy Bill In Limbo

Part 3: Akaka Retiring: Ambassador of Aloha Bridged Party Lines

WASHINGTON — Let’s get this out of the way right up top: Danny Akaka is an extraordinarily nice man.

It’s hard to tell if Hawaii’s perpetually smiling octogenarian U.S. senator has ever said a cross word to anybody in the nation’s capital. His hymns at prayer breakfasts on the Hill are the stuff of legend. Republicans and Democrats alike have only good things to say about the man.

But despite Akaka’s saint-like demeanor and reputation, it’s his record that speaks to what he’s accomplished — for Hawaii and the nation — since he came to Washington nearly four decades ago.

The former schoolteacher’s self-professed goal was to bring the aloha spirit with him. But today, gridlock shrouds the halls of Congress and Akaka was still unable to get colleagues to help him pass the signature piece of legislation bearing his name. Besides championing Native Hawaiians and other indigenous peoples, he has worked hard for federal workers and veterans.

“I tried to act humble and tried to work with people and tried to press the point that working together we can get more things done in partnership,” Akaka said in a recent interview at his office. “And so that’s what I’ve been striving for here, and I would say that I have made some strides in that.”

36 Years In Congress

After 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and 22 more in the U.S. Senate, Akaka retires at the end of the year when the 112th Congress shuts its doors. In January, Congresswoman Mazie Hirono will be sworn in to take his place alongside Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.

Comparisons with Inouye are inevitable.

The Dans both turned 88 in September, their 1924 birthdays separated by just four days. But Inouye, Hawaii’s senior senator by virtue of his longer tenure and not his 100-hour head start in life, is chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee and travels with a security detail conferred by his standing as third in line for the presidency. Akaka’s chaired only second-tier committees and subcommittees, leaving a much smaller mark, at least to casual observers.

Inouye calls Akaka an “extraordinary human being” and said the two complemented each other well as Hawaii’s senators.

“In all the years I have known him, from his time as the schools superintendent to his final days in the Senate, I have never heard him utter a harsh word or wish ill for anyone,” Inouye said in an email to Civil Beat sent by his office. “He readily forgave those who transgressed him.”

“He did utter the word ‘Aloha’ a bit more often than any other person I’ve known,” Inouye said. “But in Danny’s case, it was natural, because he epitomized the spirit of Aloha.”

Seniority is a big part of the equation for achievement and success. Inouye has been in Congress since statehood and in the Senate for half a century, making him the second-longest serving senator in U.S. history.

“Major figures like that, like the majority leader or a chairman of a major committee, you’re always a bit in their shadow,” Senate Historian Donald Ritchie pointed out in an interview. “So then the question becomes: How do you carve out a career elsewhere?”

Akaka’s been a leader on the issues nearest and dearest to him, even when they’re relatively low-profile.

As the only Native Hawaiian ever in the U.S. Senate, he’s taken on Native American issues and pushed for recognition and self-determination for his own people.

As a World War II veteran, he’s taken on veterans issues during wartime.

And as a longtime government employee, he’s taken on federal workforce issues that affect millions of those who work for the United States.

Here’s how Ritchie puts it: “He gravitated where he wanted to be.”

And even though Akaka pales next to Inouye in terms of stature and seniority, he compares favorably to the vast majority of others in the upper chamber today. Appointed by Gov. John Waihee in April 1990 to fill Spark Matsunaga‘s seat after the latter died in office, Akaka won four Senate elections since and today is the 21st most senior of 100 senators.

Historically, his 22 years in the Senate are even more rarified air. According to the U.S. Senate Historical Office, as of June only 133 senators had served at least four full six-year terms in office. With a little less than 2,000 senators in the nation’s history, Akaka ranks somewhere in or near the top 10 percent of longest serving senators of all time.

If you factor in his time in the House, Akaka’s 36 consecutive years make him one of perhaps 100 to serve that long of about 12,000 individuals who have been in either chamber of Congress since 1789, . That’s the top 1 percent.

So if Akaka’s in the upper echelon in terms of of experience, what about accomplishment?

Criticisms Of Ineffectiveness

“Seniority doesn’t mean much if you don’t know what to do with it.”

That’s what then-U.S. Rep. Ed Case said during his 2006 primary challenge against Akaka. Effectiveness, or lack thereof, was a focal point during that race, and Case’s harsh criticism was included in a about Congress.org compiling qualitative metrics that ranked Akaka 71st out of 100 in terms of power and influence in Washington.

A few months earlier, one of the “worst” senators and said he was “a master of the minor resolution and the bill that dies in committee.”

In all, introduced by Akaka were eventually signed into law. That includes some on substantive issues like veterans benefits, and others on less substantive issues like naming a medical center after Matsunaga, his predecessor.

But, as Akaka argued in that 2006 campaign, the number of bills passed isn’t the only way to measure effectiveness.

Ritchie, the Senate historian, said Akaka has been effective in his own way.

“Senators are divided into show horses and workhorses. Show horses have higher political ambition, they’re thinking about running for president or they want to be floor leader of they’ve got something going on,” he said. “They spend a lot of time doing television programs, they spend a lot of time doing press conferences, and they don’t spend a lot of time in committee.

“The workhorses spend most of their time in committee. They get to know the subject, and as a result they have a much greater influence on the legislation that comes out, but they’re not well-known outside of the institution.”

Ritchie quoted the late President Woodrow Wilson, who wrote that Congress in committee is Congress at work, while Congress on the floor is Congress on public display.

“I think Sen. Akaka is the classic workhorse in that sense. His whole life on Capitol Hill has been in the committee. It’s been much less on the Senate floor than in the Senate committees, but 80 percent of what the Senate does is done in committee rather than on the floor,” Ritchie said. “He doesn’t stick up, he doesn’t have a high profile, you’re not going to see him on the Sunday morning shows, but in terms of the legislative output of the Congress, he’s been effective.”

Akaka likes the workhorse versus show horse characterization.

“I’ve never gone out really to reporters to play all these things up that I do, so you don’t read about the things that I’ve done over the years because I never sought to be a show horse. I just wanted to be a person who can help people,” he said. “Even in my legacy, the way I feel is I don’t want to inflate the things that I’ve done just to be known.”

Case’s criticism, whether right or wrong, was eventually seen as disrespectful of his elder, a big no-no in Asian and Hawaii culture. Akaka held his seat, and Case has failed in multiple attempts to get back to Congress since.

After Akaka dispatched Case, Democrats swept the midterm elections and took control of the Senate. That elevated Akaka to his most high-profile role, chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee. That was a particularly important job when the U.S. was at war in Iraq and Afghanistan and injured veterans were coming home.

Under his watch, for example, the committee helped broker a compromise on the Post-9/11 GI Bill helping veterans afford an education.

In 2010, Akaka stepped down as Veterans Affairs chair and took over the Indian Affairs Committee. It was largely seen in Washington as a demotion, but Akaka never complained publicly about the new role.

The committee, which now hangs Native Hawaiian for the first time, has allowed Akaka to focus on the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, also known as the Akaka Bill.

Coming Tuesday: Akaka’s decade-long effort to gain recognition for Native Hawaiians.

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WASHINGTON — The Federal Transit Administration on Monday told leaders in Congress it will sign a $1.55 billion funding agreement for the Honolulu rail project, the third key hurdle cleared by the once-embattled system in less than three weeks.

The first hurdle was judicial; an environmental lawsuit was dismissed in part by a federal judge on Nov. 1. The second hurdle was electoral; anti-rail candidate Ben Cayetano lost his bid for mayor on Nov. 6. The third hurdle is administrative, with the FTA sending notice to four congressional committees giving them the mandated 30 days notice before a deal is signed.

The notice was sent to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Senate Banking Committee, the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee, the last of which is chaired by Hawaii’s Daniel K. Inouye. It was his office that broke the news Monday with a celebratory press release saying that “the path to this agreement with the federal government has not been easy.”

“This is an important step toward providing federal funding for the Honolulu Rail Transit project,” Inouye said in the joint press release from Hawaii’s four-member congressional delegation. “We have discussed and debated the merits of a rail line on the island of Oahu for the majority of my time in the Congress and I would like to thank Peter Rogoff and the Federal Transit Administration, President Obama, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for partnering with the City and County of Honolulu to build a system that will alleviate traffic congestion, lessen our dependence on imported fossil fuels and provide our residents, in particular those living in West Oahu, with a much needed alternative to driving.”

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle was jubilant at a city press conference Monday afternoon announcing the news.

He and Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Chief Daniel Grabauskas both sported wide grins.

They said they had no concerns that the amount will be any less than the $1.55 billion the city has been promised. They were also confident that there would be no problems actually securing a check from the feds.

For rail opponents, Carlisle had this message: “Rail is on the way. We’ve got the money. Get out of the way.”

The FTA confirmed that the notice was sent Monday and said Administrator Peter Rogoff signed the cover letter, but declined to provide a copy of the notice without a Freedom Of Information Act request.

The notification comes just days before a key deadline.

Under a spending bill signed into law by President Barack Obama in November 2011, Honolulu had until the end of this calendar year to sign a full funding grant agreement. If the project doesn’t reach that stage in time, the funding eligibility would expire. Thirty days notice from Monday means the earliest an FFGA could be signed is Dec. 19 — 12 days before the Dec. 31 deadline.

HART updated its financial plan in June and formally submitted the FFGA request. The funding deal fell behind the original schedule laid out by Grabauskas.

The FTA went radio silent on the prospects for the project pending the outcome of the election, saying it needed a strong local partner to proceed but hoping to stay out of local politics. Last week, after the election, the FTA told Civil Beat to complete a funding deal this year.

If signed, the FFGA would guarantee $1.55 billion in funding — about 30 percent of the project’s estimated $5.2 billion construction cost — but would not set a timeline. Inouye said in his press release that HART will receive $200 million in New Starts funding from Fiscal Year 2012 immediately upon a deal being signed.

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